The Icarus Project

At this point I’ve read my history. I learned about the European Enlightenment, made sense of where the philosophies of the sub-culture I came from drew their historical understanding. Marxism is in some ways very Biblical. There are a lot of things about Buddhist philosophy that are pretty punk. All of these things eventually overlap. I don’t think there’s any future in de-spiritualized communities, or cultures. You can look at the Left in the United States, and how much better the religious right is at organizing, because they have God on their side. Compare that to my mom in her apartment in Manhattan, reading the Nation magazine. For myself, it came from having what I didn’t realize at the time were spiritual experiences– in the punk scene, with the anarchists...

The Mind(ful) Liberation Project in Richmond, VA - an Icarus-inspired local group - is selling some great "Peer Support Now" t-shirts to fund their distro work. Check em out and buy 1 or 2.

$7 each, get them while you can

"If madness isn’t what biopsychiatry says it is, what is it? If we don’t agree with what biopsychiatry says, then we probably don’t agree with the treatment practices. For us to have some kind of intelligible answer to a first-year psychiatry intern who can tell you: it’s a brain disorder and every minute that it’s not being medicated, there’s irreparable damage being done.  The people who fund the research are the big phama companies that psychiatry represents.  A psychiatrist now can see 30-40 clients a day. Psychiatry says: this group of Icarus folks can sing Kumbaya all you want, but we own it.  I don’t believe that."

Crooked Beauty is a poetic documentary that chronicles The Icarus Project's co-founder Jacks McNamara’s transformative journey from psych ward inpatient to pioneering mental health advocacy. It will be screening at 3 festivals in the UK this fall. Come out if you are in England or Scotland!